Marxian criminology predicts an increase in criminal activity in a declining economy for all classes of potential offenders and for all kinds of crimes. This prediction is based on the view that criminal behavior is an alternative form of production which may be tapped when the capitalist economy is in decline. Although capitalists and workers alike will engage in crime, official crime statistics will reflect primarily the crimes of the poor because of the influential positions of those engaged in corporate crime. Also, the repressive actions of the state will intensify producing a corresponding violent reaction in the citizenry. Anomie theory predicts an increase for all crimes with any abrupt change in the economy, either up or down, because of a general lessening of social control when expectations and realization are not in balance. Labeling theory's predictions are all contingent on the reaction of social control institutions to the threat of crime in a declining economy, with the assumption that an increase in arrest rates will produce an increase in subequent crime because of the labeling impact on criminal behavior. Data obtained during times of economic decline should determine whether and to what degree each theory prediction is borne out either partially, completely, or not at all. The combining of the tenets of the theories may result from this empirical testing. A total of 42 notes are listed. (Author summary modified)